Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig) (2010)
83%RT Audience Score: 73%
Awards & Nominations: 19 wins & 12 nominations
Led by Henrik Ruben Ganz’s assured direction, this knotty Danish noir thriller steers audiences into some nicely unexpected territory
Terribly Happy” is like a Danish version of a Coen Brothers movie, but with a little more Gothic flair. It’s a crime drama that’s darkly comic and full of surprising twists, set in a small town that has its own sense of justice. The setting is stark and simple, but the director infuses it with a twisted beauty that’s both strange and terrible. It’s not quite a Western, but it’s definitely a weirdly compelling portrait of a town where something is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark.
Production Company(ies)
Nouvelles Éditions de Films,
Distributor
Oscilloscope Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
MPAA / Certificate
Unrated
Year of Release
2008
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
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Runtime:1h 40m
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Language(s):Danish
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Country of origin:Denmark
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Feb 5, 2010 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 13, 2010
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Terribly Happy, drama, Danish, Henrik Ruben Genz, Thomas Gammeltoft, Tina Dalhoff, Henrik Ruben Genz, Dunja Gry Jensen, Jakob Cedergren, Kim Bodnia, Lene Maria Christensen, Lars Brygmann, Anders Hove, Anh Lé, noir thriller, $120.9K, MPAA rating, reviewed by Joshua Rothkopf, Andrea Gronvall, Alissa Simon, Joe Williams, Bill Goodykoontz, Sam Adams, David Harris, Mattie Lucas, Rob Thomas, Sean Axmaker, Alison Gang, Blood Simple, Coen Brothers, small town paranoia, Robert, Jorgen, Ingerlise, Dr Zerleng, Købmand Moos, Nina, lawless place, serial wife-beater, sexpot spouse, Copenhagen city policeman, sleepy town, rural Denmark, unexpected territory, cinematic tale, genre, box office performance, budget, producer names, writer names, director names, actor names
Worldwide gross: $2,828,984
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $3,896,817
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,241
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 424,953
US/Canada gross: $170,943
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $235,467
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,512
US/Canada opening weekend: $11,650
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $16,047
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,585
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Kim Bodnia – Jorgen
Lene Maria Christensen – Ingerlise
Lars Brygmann – Dr. Zerleng
Anders Hove – Købmand Moos
Anh Lé – Nina
Director(s)
Henrik Ruben Genz
Writer(s)
Henrik Ruben Genz, Dunja Gry Jensen
Producer(s)
Thomas Gammeltoft, Tina Dalhoff
Film Festivals
Berlin
Awards & Nominations
19 wins & 12 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (48) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (6)
November 16, 2011 | Rating: 3/5
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
Lurid and stylish, this 2008 Danish feature plays like a cross between The Postman Always Rings Twice and High Noon, with a dash of Gothic thriller.
January 5, 2011
Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
Entertaining and full of surprising twists, this highly cinematic tale of a Copenhagen policeman working punishment duty in the provinces plays with genre in a manner that can be compared with the Coen brothers or David Lynch.
July 6, 2010
Alissa Simon
Variety
TOP CRITIC
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
April 15, 2010 | Rating: 3/4
Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
TOP CRITIC
Terribly Happy must surely be the greatest Danish Western ever made.
April 14, 2010 | Rating: 4/5
Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic
TOP CRITIC
Ganz cooks up a compelling paranoid mood,but there’s not enough to sustain the tone, and eventually the movie burns itself out.
March 26, 2010 | Rating: B-
Sam Adams
Philadelphia City Paper
TOP CRITIC
Unfortunately it’s all so terribly boring and predictable.
October 16, 2019 | Rating: 1.5/5
David Harris
Spectrum Culture
A film of delicious moral ambiguity and complexity that lures the audience in with its strange and terrible beauty.
August 5, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row
“Terribly Happy” is a little light on the plotting, going on narrative autopilot for the last third of the film instead of giving us a few extra turns of the screw for good measure.
August 26, 2010 | Rating: 2.5/4
Rob Thomas
Wisconsin State Journal
Not quite a comedy but as darkly comic a crime drama as you’ll find, this offbeat modern noir… is a weirdly compelling portrait of a town that has its own sense of justice…
August 11, 2010
Sean Axmaker
Seanax.com
The setting is stark and simple – a semi-deserted, two-street town amid long, flat marshland – but Director Henrik Ruben Genz infuses it all with a dark, twisted beauty.
August 11, 2010 | Rating: 3.5/4
Alison Gang
San Diego Union-Tribune
It has been aptly compared to the Coen Brothers and films like Blood Simple (1984).
July 23, 2010
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid…
Plot
Terribly Happy follows a timid city policeman who is reassigned to a lawless rural town in Denmark, where he struggles to maintain order and becomes fixated on the wife of a local thug.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Kim Bodnia, who plays the local thug and serial wife-beater Jorgen, is also known for his role in the Danish crime drama series “The Bridge.”
Henrik-Ruben-Genz.jpg
